Page 36 - PC Fall 2023

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PRESBYTERIAN
FALL 2023
presbyterian.ca
Connection
REFLECTIONS
Travel and Transcendence
My experience on the moderator’s trip to Taiwan
By William Burr, Master of Divinity student, Vancouver School of Theology
My name had been put forward by the Vancouver School of Theol- ogy for me to become a member of the trip that the moderator of The Presbyterian Church in Can- ada takes each year. In April, the Rev. Dr. Robert (Bob) Faris was bringing a delegation from across Canada to Taiwan. I’d been look- ing forward to the trip for weeks.
“Maybe it will help with your discernment,” my professor had said. I’m studying for a Master of Divinity, the degree to become a minister, but I’m not sure what I’ll do with it.
Upon arrival, we drove through suburbs into bustling Taipei, where lush green trees framed highways and industrial buildings.
(Left to right) Zahra Brown, Cathy Reid, president of the Women’s Missionary Society, and Robert Griffiths, president of the Atlantic Missions Society, on the campus of Aletheia University outside Taipei, which Canadian missionary George Leslie Mackay founded in 1872.
The delegation from The Presbyterian Church in Canada after learning how to make flower garlands in a rural village.
was in place. People were impris- oned without due process, and an atmosphere of secrecy and mistrust hung over the country. The names of people executed by the state were shown on a wall of the former prison. Our guide had spent over 10 years unjustly de- tained, and he showed us a small, sterile room that he’d barely left for years. He was a jovial man whose demeanour seemed at odds with this grisly history. It was so important for him to come and tell his story there every day, he said.
We went around the island on bullet trains, regular trains, by mini bus, even by foot, through low mountains, Indigenous vil- lages and university campuses, seminaries and churches. Bright flowers grew wildly on the sides of dusty roads next to rice fields. Communities everywhere wel- comed us, sang, danced and told their stories. One Indigenous group walked us past colourful murals that showed how the com- munity had once been expelled from another region. The people there earned their livelihood by making toys out of bamboo, and showed us how to work with the strong, brittle material. They were hearty, welcoming and relaxed after the formality of General As- sembly. They served us rice and seafood wrapped in grape leaves, a sweet and crispy fried meat, fresh melon and guava.
A member of an Indigenous group, left, about to give a gift to the Rev. Bob Faris, former moderator of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. In the middle stands Chiang Chi Kang, our guide. PHOTO CREDIT: GRACE McCREARY.
We were accompanied on our travels by two guides from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan: Chi Kang, who introduced us everywhere we went, and Rachel, who made sure none of us got lost. Other members of the mod- erator’s trip ranged in age from late-20s to retirees, and were selected to represent different as- pects of the church’s life and min- istry. Every time you took a seat in the bus or the train, you might talk to someone new from the group. I learned about switching careers from day trader to Presbyterian minister, and the challenges of being a gay minister. I heard about a doctoral thesis on open relation- ships in the church, mission work in Malawi, and advocacy work for people with disabilities.
We wanted to be present, in this new place, for these people who knew little of Canada, for whom we would be the example. There is something so hear tfelt in that desire to be a good representative.
We went to church once, in one village. But we were always in a kind of church, literally or
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A Taiwanese Canadian member of our group, Paul Wu, led us on a visit to a temple wedged between urban buildings. Large red drag- ons adorned the pillars, and doz- ens of people gathered in a court- yard had lined up to be smudged with incense or to throw wooden divination blocks.
Taipei was calm and humming, dense but organized, with narrow alleys, wide thoroughfares, and motorbikes weaving seamlessly in and out of traffic. Pedestrians filled the sidewalks but never seemed to rush. The sun was hot and humid, 30 degrees in mid- April. When the skies opened up a day later, the motor-bikers had suddenly all donned full-body rain suits, without skipping a beat.
The day after our arrival, we attended the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Tai- wan, one of the main denomina- tions in the country, founded by Canadian and Scottish missionar- ies in the 19th century. We sat in a huge hotel conference space,
where over 500 people took in the rapid, occasionally heated Man- darin and Taiwanese proceed- ings. Everything seemed formal and ceremonial, and yet debates were constantly emerging be- tween speakers on the floor and leaders on the stage. I struggled to follow the simultaneous live translation.
Proceedings stopped suddenly when a flurry of television news crews scurried in, followed by the Taiwanese vice-president, who gave a speech about choosing democracy and religious plural- ism over authoritarianism.
“Even if China invades, we have the God of history on our side,” the pastor of one church we visited later said to us. “Pray for Taiwan,” several people said as we left their communities. “Don’t forget us.”
On our third day, we visited the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park, which commemorates a pe- riod in Taiwan from the late 1940s to early 1990s, when martial law
Moderator Visits
Each year, the moderator of the General Assembly visits denominations and mission partners the PCC has outside Canada. These visits give moderators a greater understanding of Christ’s work in the world in different contexts.
It used to be the case that moderators travelled with their spouse and perhaps a staff person who worked with our partners. In the last few years, this custom has been changed so that moderators travel with people from across the PCC who are chosen based on the priorities of our partners and moderatos. Earlier this year, the Rev. Dr. Bob Faris travelled with nine people from across Canada who were associated with many aspects of the PCC’s ministry. In 2023, the Rev. Mary Fontaine will visit with ministries and people in Israel–Palestine.
A large group of delegations (including the Canadian group) from different countries who came for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, standing in front of Chè-lâm Presbyterian Church, Taipei.